Like that great old wrestling meme of The Undertaker sitting up after seemiing being “dead,” the Pac-12 might be resurrecting itself. One has to wonder now that the conference is just about back if the Utah football program would have some remorse.
After all, it’s not as though the Utes were desperate to leave the Pac-12. Much has been made of the fact they ended up joining the Big 12 only because they wanted to make sure they had a Power Conference chair when the music stopped.
So now that there might be a chair for the Utah football team in their old home, does that get especially attractive? It’s not the most likely scenario, but one has to think it could happen.
All of this unfolds as the Pac-12, which is really the Pac-2 at the moment announces that at least four Mountain West schools have officially applied for membership. And things are thought to be moving fast.
Utah football could be in for a bit of remorse over conference move
Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported on Wednesday night that Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Colorado State are set to join Oregon State and Washington State in the reconstituted conference.
That announcement came on Thursday morning officially. The wrinkle here is that in order to officially qualify as an actual conference and thereby qualify for the college football playoffs, it needs to have eight teams.
The Pac-12 is searching for at least two more programs to join. The obvious place they’re looking would be the ACC and the Big 12, where conference castoffs are just now trying to make themselves home in their new surroundings.
Obviously, it’s possible the Pac-12 could eventually just become what we all thought it would when everyone but Wazzu and the Beavers left. A new Mountain West. But for now, it’s clear that’s not the ideal scenario.
Would Utah football going back to its old home be something the program considers? Almost certainly not right now, but who knows about the near future?